


Please don't eat all the Snickers

by Tsuki_Amano



Series: 365 Stucky Shots [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, mentions of canon-disabled character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 12:48:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4706588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuki_Amano/pseuds/Tsuki_Amano
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's pretty sure none of his employee orientation training prepared him for a cute guy hiding behind the register while he was working, especially when said cute guy was hiding from his creepy ex. </p><p>Or that meet-cute where Bucky stows away behind the register to escape a less than pleasant encounter with his ex-boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please don't eat all the Snickers

**Author's Note:**

> This is pre-serum Steve Rogers, so he is hearing impaired in one ear, although barring one line in this story it has no impact.

“Uh pal, I really don’t think you’re allowed to be back there.”

Steve winces when the man starts at the sound of his voice and hits his head on a pile of Toblerones. _That had to hurt_. He wonders whether he should call the police or get him an ice pack.

A customer comes up to the cashier and Steve’s momentarily distracted, billing the young woman’s purchases. He’s almost done, about to finish bagging her items when she asks for two packs of gum. Steve’s about to bend down to retrieve the items when he finds them being shoved into his hand. He looks down to find the strange man, sitting cross-legged on the floor, pointedly not looking at him.

The woman clears her throat and Steve jumps, she can’t see the other man, so to her Steve just looks borderline insane. He smiles brightly and prints out her bill, wishing her a good day when she pays and leaves.

He checks the vicinity to make sure the coast is clear and joins the stranger on the floor.

“Seriously, I could get fired for this!” Steve protests, although it’s half-hearted. Technically, Steve hadn’t been fired yet for any of the various ‘incidents’ that happened during his shifts, including that one time Tony had been drunk and decided he wanted to be Cleopatra. Peggy was a pretty awesome boss, all things considered.

His efforts are met with an angry scowl. He vaguely recognizes him, Sam’s friends with him. Steve thinks his name is James or something, Sam’s met him down at the VA.

James shakes his head and says, “I don’t plan on living here or anything buddy, just need to lay low for a few minutes.”

Steve notes the tenseness in his shoulders and the way his eyes dart from side to side, something’s got him spooked.

Speaking calmly, so as not to scare him more, he asks, “Is there any reason why?”

“Your pastrami sandwiches are out to get me.” He says, with such a straight face that Steve laughs.

“I always knew they were things of evil.” James shares a small smile with him and Steve’s relieved to see some of the tension seep out of his shoulders. He opens his mouth to say something else when someone clears their throat.

Steve may have forgotten that technically, he had a job to do.

Straightening up, he smoothens out the wrinkles on his apron and smiles cheerfully at the customer who’s waiting at the cashier. To his bad luck, the man in front of him is scowling at him.

“Do you have a habit of lazing around on the floor while customers wait for you to decide to do your job?”

Next to him, James tenses.

Wow, what a jerk, Steve’s totally not telling him about the discount options of the month.

“I apologize sir, I was reordering some items on the lower shelves.”

He scans the man’s items, noting that they’re hardly anything to throw a fit over, a six pack of cheap beer and a frozen pizza.

“Whatever, just bill me so I can leave.”

“Of course sir.” Steve bites his tongue before he adds, **_With pleasure_**. He does need his job to pay his bills.

Even if customer service sucked.

He bags the items and puts away the money. The man’s about to leave when he asks suddenly, “Hey did a guy walk out of here, maybe five or ten minutes ago? Brown hair, wearing a leather jacket?”

Steve looks at him, this guy was just stacking up the points for Jerk of the Year Award wasn’t he?

“I’m sorry?”

“Dude are you deaf? I’m asking if you saw my boyfriend walk out of here. Do you have like, a customer feedback form or something I can fill out because…”

The penny drops and Steve realizes why he’s got a stowaway behind the counter. He squares his shoulders and says, “Actually, sir, I am partially deaf. So. Additionally, if you’re looking for your boyfriend, I’d recommend calling him instead of harassing innocent bystanders. Though if you’re half as pleasant to him as you are to other people, I can see why he bailed on you. Now either leave or I’m calling the cops for harassment.”

He waits until the man is gone before putting the phone back down.

Sinking back down to the floor, he ignores the fact that James’ eyes are suspiciously red-rimmed, handing him a Snickers and a box of Kleenex.

“Employee discount” he says, shrugging when James looks at him.

“Thanks pal, I owe you one.” And shit, his voice is breaking and Steve’s really not sure what he’ll do if he starts crying. Does he hug him? Because James looks like he will beat the crap out of Steve if he hugs him. Maybe he can offer him a refreshing juice packet, everyone loves juice right?

James seems to pull himself together and a minute later, he says, “’M sorry about all this, not exactly one of my proudest moments. I really do owe you though pal, not a lot of people woulda stood up to Benny like that.”

Oh so that was his name?

Flushing, Steve replied, “It was nothing really. ‘Sides, you’re friends with Sam right? It’s the least I could do.”

“Well either way, I appreciate it.”

And hot damn, but Steve is so gone, because those eyes, he could drown in them and this is not the time.

He stands up abruptly, his face hot and says, “Uh, I need to clean up the, uh shop. And sweep and stuff. So, um. Yes. Cleaning.”

He does **_NOT_** trip over his own two feet when he’s rushing around the counter and he most certainly does **_NOT_** knock over the pyramid of dog food cans he’d spent half an hour constructing that morning.

James does **_NOT_** have to pull him out from under a pile of metal cans and worriedly check for a concussion, while telling him to call him Bucky.

Because that would be totally embarrassing and the lamest way ever to score a date on Saturday night for tacos.

He wonders if he can get Clint to cover his shift the Sunday morning shift too. He knows a place that makes good pancakes.

**Author's Note:**

> Toblerone boxes are sharp *Life experience*
> 
> I'll be updating the Superhero arc sometime later this week, but for now I wanted to write a few unrelated prompts first. I saw this meet-cute (ugly?) somewhere and fell in love with it.


End file.
